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The Best Sub Sandwich in WAMU Land

When we rather naively asked our listeners to nominate their pick for the best subs in the Washington area, several things immediately happened.

First, we were surprised by the passion that people had for their favorite subs. We haven't raised that much Crummy But Good culinary passion since the Great Crabcake War.

Second, we discovered a sub is not a sub is not a sub. Listeners had us trying everything from Vietnamese subs to hot meatball subs, and vegetarian subs. To add to the confusion, a partisan listener, Gerry Desrosiers, reminded us that in his native New England a sub is properly called a "grinder." He suggested other regional variations such as "hoagies" and "po'boys, although inferior to "grinders," should also be considered. Finally he offered our favorite unhelpful definition:

"A sub is just a hoagie with delusions of grinder."

Thanks a lot. But we settled on narrowly defining an official Metro Connection sub as a cold sandwich in a long roll containing Italian cold cuts, cheese, lettuce, tomato, onions and house condiments. Still the passion ran high and about two dozen sub sources received multiple votes.

Fortunately for us, the three top vote getters ended in a statistical tie for first place and nicely represented Virginia, Maryland and the District. Really. It just happened that way.

Strict Judging Methods:

First we tried the holistic approach. Each judge would take a bite of the sample sub, and the other judges would ask, "So what do you think?" An important criterion became: How many bites before you're tasting everything? Our three winners provided plenty of bread, meat, cheese, veggies and spices starting with the very first bite.

Many of our listeners, particularly Alex Orr, offered their own more scientific approaches to judging. We worked their best suggestions into what we call the CSI Approach. Like medical examiners on the scene of a crime, we broke down our subs into individual clues and tried to figure out what made them special based on 10 specific points including how good the meat (thin? watery? fresh?), how friendly the service, and the comparative cost per inch of sub.

OK, OK. Which Is Your Favorite Sub?

In the words of my mother, as she gazed upon her five children, "You are all my favorites." Each of the subs was excellent, each was slightly different, but none stood out as a clear winner. All offered a good variety of fresh, interesting meats and other ingredients and all offered a few tables, but are more designed for takeout. In alphabetical order, we share some thoughts about our three favorite sub shops. (In parentheses we include the name of the favorite sub, the price per inch, what stood out and an unfair impression of the slight differences in clientele, which of course varies constantly.)

Take a number right away, because the place gets very busy and service can get slow. Tomatoes extra. Makes most of the food served, including a nice range of salads. Try the muffuletta for something different. (Milano sub, 61 cents per inch, voted "Juiciest sub," most organized deli, and best place to meet a sub-loving Captain America.)

Almost 40 years of good sub making experience. Double parking is a popular sport at lunchtime. Imports side dishes. G-Man sub well known and popular favorite on Capitol Hill and the Navy Yard. (G-Man sub, 50 cents per inch, voted "Most Italian sub," and best sub place to meet political junkie.)

Makes own side dishes and take-home meals and roast their own beef. Dill egg salad a favorite. Mrs. Santucci stenciled the grape border on the wall and Mr. Santucci laid the black and white tile floor that calls out for a game of checkers. (Italian sub, 61 cents per inch, voted "Best Traveling sub," best atmosphere, and best sub place to meet regular blue-collar people like we were back home.)